Anyone guess as to what this is?

[JimR]

Yesterday it rained pretty hard for a short period of time. My freindly farmer has been complaining about his pond turning brown when it rains. So I decided to scoop up some water from the brook before it goes onto my property and into said pond. Here is a nice picture of the stuff that was in the water. There are also plenty of little micro-organisms of some sort swimming around in it. Mind you, this has settled since last night when it looked more like a brown bean soup without the beans. Any ideas what it is? Please keep the subject to just this picture please. The jar is a one quart container. No bottom silt or guck was picked up. This was just the running water I scooped up.

 

[JerryG]

Manure run off?

 

[Cowboyjg]

Somewhat along the same lines as Jerry. What's up stream from you? Is somebody discharging into the stream by chance? Maybe a problem leach field?

 

[JimR]

Upstream is a small pond that was clear yesterday while the brook was running brown. There are two other houses and 3 horses. I was thinking along the lines of sewage runoff as this stuff is not dirt. It very well could be horse manure. I can't legally go onto someone's property to see if they have ran a drain line to the brook from their leach field. I do have the proper authority's coming over today to do an inspection. I do not want to be blamed for this guck flowing into a public drinking water reservoir. Yes, this is going into a public drinking water system.

 

[dooleysm]

Looks alot like the runoff from a big pile of turkey manure at a turkey house near (thankfully downhill) my house.

 

[scott_vt]

I can't legally go onto someone's property to see if they have ran a drain line to the brook from their leach field.

Wow thats nasty, gee Jim, you shouldnt worry about trespassing, your neighbor sure didnt

Just tryin to keep you smilin

Your buddy in Vt

 

[JimR]

The gunk is solved. The C.C. came by today and HE did a sneak around the neighbors property two houses up where the brook starts. This brown stuff is all over the bottom of the pond near the exit end. I couldn't go there to peak myself, no authority ya know. He determined it to be vegetation rot from the weeds and growth in the shallow pond. We both thought it was horse manure. He and I are both primed for tomorrow night. At least we figured out what this brown stuff is. Now I can inform my neighbor who owns the pond downstream so that he can cool down.

Scotty, I'm always smiling about something. I don't trespass on other people's property regardless of the reasons to. There are officials that can do this legally.
(BIG SMILE)

 

[Highbeam]

Well straight sewage is only one half of one percent solids. That jar has lots of solids. Even a neglected septic tank will only overflow sewage with as much solids as straight sewage so I feel that you can cross a sewage line off the list. You have very high solids concentration there. It could be an algae bloom (not all is green) or it could be runoff from a manure pile or both.

 

[RonMar]

We have been having some problems out West this year with Algae in some of the lakes. It started with some dogs getting sick and dying mysteriously after swimming in some local lakes. They determined it was a type of Algae and several lakes were closed while they monitored the levels. One of them is still closed now about 5 weeks after the first problems were reported.

 

[JimR]

Now that is a scary thought. Maybe we'll pass the samples on to the proper authorities after all and let them do the testing on it. Seeing how it is their drinking water, not mine.